I have realised that I haven’t been a good friend to You. I seek your company and Your guidance when I feel lost or unhappy, yet when everything is going well I barely give You a second thought.

I run to You in an emergency, I pour out my problems to You on my ‘bad’ days, and I expect You to be there for me every time I feel unhappy or unsatisfied.

And yet, I never thank You for the passing of all the beautiful days You give me. I forget to tell You how happy I am to have passed an interview, found a new home, or made a new friend. I take it for granted that the sky is blue and that the sun is warming my skin. I am blind to all the miracles You perform in my every day life.

I am beginning to realise just how much You do for me. Today, You reminded me to take my umbrella, because You knew it would rain; You whispered poems to the trees, which swayed to the rhythm of Your voice as I walked past. You cleared the clouds to help our tomatoes ripen in the sun, and You gave me ten minutes to drink my tea in stillness and in silence.

I am sorry for having taken You for granted for so long, and I am sorry for having been such a selfish friend. You have continued to give me love and care, despite my ingratitude; You have continued to give, despite not receiving anything in return; You have been loving me unconditionally.

I thank You for everything, and especially for helping me realise my ingratitude.

A while ago, Kate from The Phoenixplains invited me to join a game of tag, to which the rules are as follows:

1. You must post the rules.
2. Answer the questions the tagger set for you in their post and then create eleven new questions to ask the people you’ve tagged.
3. Tag eleven people and link to them on your post.
4. Let them know you’ve tagged them!

So, Kate, here are the answers to your interesting, although at times difficult, questions:

What one ‘need’ and one ‘want’ will you strive to achieve in the next twelve months?

Need: find a new job.
Want: find a job in editing/writing which fulfils me and in which I can learn many new skills.

What would you do differently if you knew nobody would judge you?

At the moment, it is not other people’s judgement that is preventing me from doing certain things in life, but the financial means to do so. I would love to take a yoga teacher training course in Costa Rica, for example.

What three words would you use to describe the last three months of your life?

Challenging, confusing, instructive.

What makes you weird/interesting/different?

I always look at the time when the numbers are matching, for example at 23.23.

If you could do it all over again, would you change anything?

No, because I learnt a lot from it all!

What small act of kindness were you once shown that you will never forget?

It was a situation in which a sick person was paying more attention to the health and well-being of those around her than to her own situation. Her deep care and altruism brought tears to my eyes, and I will never forget that even when we are in difficult situations, we must nevertheless continue to show love and care to those around us.

If you were forced to eliminate every physical possession from your life with the exception of what could fit into a single backpack, what would you put in it?

Apart from the essentials, such as basic clothes, money, a mobile phone, toothbrush etc., I would also put in my backpack my camera, my favourite jewellery, a pen and notebook, a poetry book, a few photos of my family and friends, playing cards, an address book and an umbrella.

What have you read online recently that inspired you?

In this post I discovered an amazing French song (video with English subtitles below).

If you could take a single photograph of your life, what would it look like?

Front plan: my sibling and I sticking out our tongues to the camera. Background: my mum and grandparents in the garden, looking at us and laughing.

What are you most grateful for?

The wonderful family and friends I have.

What is the simplest truth you can express in words?

Everything is perfect, even the shitty parts.

***

Here are my own 11 questions:

What books have changed your life?

What project would you start if you knew you couldn’t fail?

When I say “time”, you say……

Which well-known person is an inspiration to you and why?

Which motto or theory do you love but find difficult to put into practice?

If you could introduce a new subject to be taught to school-children in your country, what subject would you introduce?